Fire, Bounties, & Ice-Cold Milk
by TheGumGumWriter
Summary: Portgas D. Ace's search for Blackbeard takes him to an island in the middle of nowhere. There, the surprisingly well-mannered Pirate meets a milkmaid with a lot of attitude. How will Ace deal with the mischievous Moda? What happens when an enemy from Ace's past comes to take his revenge? AcexModa fic. Based on characters from Ace's Great Blackbeard Search (Cover Story)
1. Mean Ashes & A Pineapple Haired Visitor

The tiny pile of ash taunted her.

_This is my fault._ Moda thought. _I let you leave._ She gently dabbed the soot with her fingers, the coldness of the dark particles once again mutilating her grief-coated heart. _You idiot. He isn't coming back. _Moda chastised herself harshly. The embers of the burning vivrecard had long flickered out. She knew this. Still, she couldn't bring herself to concede the game she'd been playing these past few months. Deluding herself into hope, no matter how unrealistic or farfetched, was much easier than coming to terms with what the ash pile was shouting at her.

If only she hadn't been so naïve. Moda smiled weakly at the thought. _I still don't get_, she thought, shaking her head,_ how you always loved that about me_. Memories of him laughing at her farm girl's innocence brought a rare smile to her face, if only for a fleeting moment. "Ace." Moda whispered. His name hung in the air like smoke from a snuffed out candle, five months' worth of suppressed sadness expanding into the room like an overgrown Sabody Archipelago bubble.

The tears were coming again. She could feel her battered floodgates swinging open, her festering wound of a soul spilling out her sleep deprived eyes. She longed to feel his hands, fingers calloused from years of conquering the unruly seas of the Grand Line, gently cradle her blonde curls. She ached for the unlikely placement of those eyes, perfervid coals of fiery passion and love of adventure, with the soft cheeks of childish freckles beneath them. She didn't even try to wipe away her tears or stop herself from thinking of him. She just sat, slumped in her chair, hoping the ghosts of the past would not torture her too much.

How long had she been sitting there? An hour? Two hours? Three? Irrelevant. No amount of time, long or short, could sew up the rips in her heart. _Ace, are you watching? It must hurt to see me like this. You want a strong woman. But I can't be that for you right now. Being strong was always your thing._

Moda remembered that day so clearly. All of Terra-Terra Town, the entire world for that matter, had been shaken by the headlines surrounding the Battle of Marineford, what pirates and marines alike called the 'War of the Best'.

"EXTRA! EXTRA! Read all about it!" An excited paperboy shouted at the top of his lungs.

"I've got the latest on the recent conflict between the Whitebeard Pirates & the Navy at Marineford!" Another belted.

"Both Edward Newgate and Portugas D. Ace are dead! Read it here first!"

"Hot off the press! The Strongest Man in the World, the Great Emperor of the Sea Whitebeard, and his second division commander Fire Fist Ace, the son of Pirate King Gol D. Roger, ARE DEAD!"

But Moda already knew. Ace's vivrecard had burned up five days earlier, and with it, the milkmaid's cheeriness. When her mother Koda, asked her what was wrong, Moda had forced a smile, blaming her change in demeanor on a long day of work on the ranch.

Koda never questioned her or her husband Kyuji's jobs as the two head cooks at Navy Base G2. They were well paid and, while they had to leave Moda behind on the ranch for weeks, sometimes months at a time, they never had to worry about their little MoMo going without. She'd never felt as much shame and disgust as she did holding the newspaper in her hands and seeing her little girl's spirit so broken.

"Absolute Justice? Hmph!" Kyuji snorted, his nose wrinkling as he read the post-war interview statement from Akainu. "Countless young lives snuffed out, never to dream again. And for what? Admirals who are nothing but puppets for our greedy World Government?"

"Kyuji!" Koda pleaded, darting a stern glance in Moda's direction, hoping her husband would get the hint.

"Sorry." Kyuji sighed, realizing his daughter was within earshot. His voice lowered. "You know what I'm saying's true though. Whitebeard & Roger may have been pirates, but they were honest. They had values. Codes. That's shit this 'Worst Generation' of pirates knows nothing about. The seas aren't going to be safer. They're going to get worse!" He took an angry bite out of his bagel. "Hmph! I used to think the Marines were heroes, only working towards the safety of those who couldn't fight. Now, this entire town is drinking and carrying on, hailing our navy like they're something special. But not me. Not us!" Kyuji slammed his fist on the table in disgust.

He thought back to the little girl who used to dance and sing, wild blonde curls bobbing to and fro, as she played with the cow calves on the farm. He looked at her now. Kyuji turned back to Koda. "KoKo, it's because of him we still have MoMo. He saved her life. He made our little girl happy. I will _never_ forgive Sengoku for this. "

Koda nodded, her eyes as fierce as her husbands.

"MoMo." Moda looked at her father. "I've been thinking about something."

"Yes, daddy?"

"Do you want me to stop cooking for the Navy?"

Moda's eyes widened with shock. "Daddy!" She frantically shook her head. "You love that job. I would never ask you to quit just for–"

Kyuji gently put up his hand, motioning for Moda to let him finish. "Moda. I know all of this is hard for you. I don't want you to answer this as a good daughter. I want you to answer with what you really want."

Moda slumped back in her chair, eyes closed, thoughts racing. A voice whispered in her ear, a sweet reminder from days long gone, a relic from happiness she no longer knew. "MoMo." _"A real pirate never keeps those around him from following their dreams."_

She smiled. "No, daddy. Cooking is what you love. I'm not going to ask you to give that up for me. I'll be okay. I promise."

A knock on the door brought Moda out of her retrospection. "Yo! Is anyone home?" A man's voice called out.

"Just a minute!" Turning on the room's lighting and covering the vivrecard ashes, She trudged to the door. "Can I help you?"

A lean, muscular, twenty-something looking man with a tuft of wild dirty blonde hair shooting out like crown leaves on a pineapple stood at the door. "Are you Moda Malon?"

Moda waited a long time, before nodding apprehensively. Could she really trust this man?

The man's mouth curved into a smile. Slight, like that of a man worn out from a long journey. "Don't worry. Ace said I needed to find you." Moda froze, her heart palpitating wildly at the mention of him. "My name's Marco. Marco Alvarias. I'm the first division commander of the Whitebeard Pirates." Moda could see the pain in his face as he spoke his captain's name. "May I come in?"

Moda nodded sympathetically. As he stepped closer, Moda could make out the Whitebeard Pirates tattoo on his chest in the room's lighting. "So Ace sent you?"

Marco laughed. "There were two things Ace couldn't shut up about. His straw-hat wearing little brother. And you."

Luffy. Moda's mind drifted. That's right. Did she really have the right to grieve the way she had been? After all, she wasn't the only one who was mourning the loss of Ace. Monkey D. Luffy, a young pirate from Ace's native East Blue, had tried and failed to save his big brother in the climax of the War of the Best.

"Hey." Marco gently tapped her on the shoulder. "That was rude of me. I know this must be really rough on you and Ace'd kill me if he knew I made you feel guilty for what Luffy's going through."

Moda smiled, blushing slightly. "That obvious, huh?" Marco nodded, flashing his pearly whites.

"Oh yeah." Moda laughed. Somehow, she felt safe around Marco. _Ace, he's as calm as you said._ "Hey, I know. I have some stuff I want to talk to you about. But, before that, can you tell me how you and that hothead met?"

Moda giggled. It'd been a while since she let herself do that. "Well, it's kind of a long story…"


	2. FIND TEACH! (Ace's Mission Begins)

**_5 months earlier, Eldrya River, Rodo Rodo Island, Grand Line, 40 km from G2 Naval Base…_**

A man's lungs struggled to hoard air as the force of the river's current swelled upon him. _Dammit!_ He thought. If he didn't think of something and fast, he was going to sink to the bottom. He felt the water disorienting him into dizziness, his devil-fruit powers leaking out of him, their place usurped by weakness.

Finally, everything went black…

"TEACH!" A man clamored angrily. "WHERE ARE YOU?! COME OUT!"

"Pops! We'll find him." Marco said, trying to calm his adoptive father and captain.

Whitebeard slammed his long-poled bisentō down on the the Moby Dick's deck. "I WANT HIM FOUND!" Lower level pirates and division commanders alike cowered at the sight of the angered Great Emperor of the Sea and trembled under the sky-darkening weight of his Conqueror's Haki. At 12 feet tall, with a build making heavily muscled bodybuilders look like schoolgirls, Whitebeard's appearance was bloodcurdling, to say the least

"Pops." Whitebeard turned his head. "I'll find him. He was in my division. He's my responsibility."

"Ace." Whitebeard's eyes softened and a smile broke out on his face. Out of all his adopted sons, Portogas D. Ace was among his favorites and most loyal. It'd be impossible for an outsider to guess Whitebeard's second division commander had joined the pirates after losing a fight with the Emperor and failed 100 attempts at assassinating him after joining.

"You idiot. You need to calm down and let me handle this." Marco said, trying to cool his friend down. "This is Blackbeard! He's a snake!"

"So what?!" Ace retorted. "He killed Thatch! The greedy bastard couldn't resist getting his stubby fingers on the Dark-Dark Fruit."

"Which is EXACTLY why you shouldn't go after him. He's dangerous. You might not even be able to handle him." Marco said, attempting to reason with his friend.

"So what am I supposed to do? Just let him get away with killing Thatch? With dishonoring Pops like that? NO WAY!"

"Pops. You can't let him do this."

Whitebeard looked at both of his sons. Then he laughed. Hard. "Gurararara! My sons are full of fire! Ace, you brat!" Whitebeard sat in his chair, doubling over with laughter. Marco and Ace shot each other puzzled looks. All over the ship, crewmembers and division commanders alike exhaled with relief as the sky was suddenly much lighter than it had been minutes earlier.

Whitebeard's countenance grew serious again. "Ace, my son, you know you don't have to do this. I can send Marco, with the powers of his fruit, he can catch up to Teach much faster than you can. At the very least, we can all go as soon as we get info on his whereabouts. You don't need to go."

Ace shook his head. "No Pops. I've made up my mind. I'm going to go find him. Thatch was the first friend I had when I came aboard. There's no way in hell I'm gonna sit back and watch Teach dishonor his and your name. No way."

Whitebeard slumped back in his chair, stroking the right side of his mustache. "Okay, son." Marco opened his mouth in protest, but Whitebeard held up a hand. Marco restrained himself. "My son has decided to stand for his father and brother's honor. I won't let anyone stop him." Despite having said this, worry and concern lined his face.

"Don't worry, Pops. I won't be stupid."

"Oh yeah? Gurararara!" Whitebeard laughed, embracing his son.

The sensation of his body hitting wood roused Ace from his subconscious trip down memory lane. Coughing and sputtering, he spat out riverwater and groggily came to. _That's right, I was drowning._ He looked up, his fuzzy eyes making out the image of a seventeen year old girl with long, curly blonde locks.

"Oh you're alive." She giggled. One of Ace's eyebrows perked up with intrigue. "Oh! How rude of me! My name's Moda Malon. But my friends call me MoMo."

Ace grinned. "Moda, you saved my life. I'm Ace. Portogas D. Ace"


	3. The Freeloading Pirate

Moda stared at the snoring chocolate haired man facedown on her kitchen table. _Who in the world falls asleep while eating?_ She thought.

"You know," Ace said, waking suddenly from his slumber, continuing like nothing had happened, and stacking his empty plate on the steadily growing pile beside him, "I don't remember the last time I've eaten a meal and not had to run right after. So thank you." He took a drink from his cup. "You weren't lying when you said your family's milk is the best on the Grand Line."

Moda giggled. "Thanks! I guess you would be the best judge, since you definitely eat a lot. And you snore loud."

Ace laughed, dabbing his mouth with a napkin. "Well, excuse me. I didn't know you Terra Terra girls were rude."

Moda rolled her eyes at Ace's mock offense. "Excuse me, I'm a WOMAN. I'm seventeen. And you DO eat a lot." She stuck her tongue out and pointed at the climbing pile of plates. "You eat really proper too."

"You eat really _properly._" Ace corrected, sticking his fork and knife into another piece of meat. "And you're seventeen. You and my little brother are around the same age."

Eyes rolled. "Whatever. By the way, how did you end up in that river? I've never seen anyone flap their arms in water as desperately as you did and STILL sink like a dead Sea King."

"I made some new friends." Ace chuckled, his mind drifting off to earlier in the day. "I dined and dashed at a restaurant on the other side of the river. Punching Blackbeard didn't make your villagers any happier. Turns out he wasn't the guy I was looking for."

"What?!" Moda shrieked. "Why would you hit Dr. Blackbeard? He's the nicest man in our village!"

Ace looked down at his plate. "I'm looking for someone. Your village's doctor looked like him and shared the same name."

"The man you're looking for must have really done something for you to go up to someone you've never met and punch them in the face."

"He murdered one of my best friends." Moda sat up, wide-eyed with shock. Ace continued. "Blackbeard couldn't stand seeing Thatch have something he wanted, something Thatch got fair and square. He spat on the generous hand of my father, our captain, and he needs to be punished." Ace looked up at Moda, his whiskey colored eyes ablaze with rage.

"I'm sorry." Moda apologized.

Ace's face softened. "Hey. You have nothing to do with this."

"I know, but I just know how it is. I lost my best friend when I was little."

"What happened to her?"

"She drowned at sea. Some pirates attacked the ship her and her parents were on."

"Is that why you saved me?"

Moda nodded, staring at Ace for a long time. "I've been kind of curious. What's the deal with that tattoo on your back?"

Ace shot her a sympathetic look. "I figured you'd ask." He placed another morsel of food into his mouth, before Moda snatched the plate away from him, shooting him a dirty look. Ace sighed, wishing he could have eaten more. "It's the symbol of the Whitebeard Pirates."

"Whitebeard. Pirates." Moda reeled backwards in shock, her wide-eyes looking Ace up and down. _How could a pirate be so well mannered? More well-mannered than her? Was she in danger?_

Ace put a hand on her shoulder. "Hey." She looked up into his intently focused whiskey-brown eyes. "You don't have to fear me. Pops would never forgive me if I hurt a good-liking woman like you." Moda blushed embarrassingly.

"Oh and I'M the rude one?" Still, she couldn't deny the effect his compliment had had on her. _Come to think of it, he is kind of cute_. She caught herself too much attention to the boyish freckles on his tan, well-chiseled chin. He was more well-built than most of the other young men in the village _Still he's a __**pirate**_. Daddy's always said you can never be too careful around them. "Pops, huh. So _the_ Whitebeard, _the Great Emperor of the Sea_, is your father?"

"He's more than that. He made me his son when I was still a hothead on the seas."

"Mhm. I see." Moda said skeptically.

"Don't believe everything the World Government says. Not all pirates are the same."

"Oh? What do you mean?"

"Whitebeard isn't like every other treasure-hungry pirate on the seas. He's from a different era, in a different class. He's a pirate, sure. But he's the one who taught me a real man will never stand by and do nothing when his friends need him. I've never seen him run from a fight. Ever."

"And what about my friend Lara?" Ace raised an eyebrow in intrigue. "It was pirates who killed her. Pirates who steal and murder and plunder and take what doesn't belong to them."

"The old man's not like that."

"So he's not a pirate?"

Ace cracked a wide smile. "No he is. The very best, the one I'm going to make Pirate King one day."

"So if Whitebeard's a pirate, isn't he just like the people who killed Lara? How do I know YOU aren't?"

"You don't."

"Well that makes me feel a whole lot better."

"Geez." Ace sighed. "Will you let me finish, or is sarcasm another trait of you rude Terra Terra girls."

Moda scowled. "I'm a WOMAN."

Ace ignored her. "Whether I'm like the pirates who killed your friend is something you're going to have to decide for yourself. But what I can say for sure is there's no way Pops is like that." Ace poured some more milk into his cup. "There was this one time, two years ago, when Kaido, another Great Emperor of the Sea, was angry at the Old Man. I forget why, though. He challenged Pops to a fight, the _Moby Dick_ against his ship."

"So what happened?"

"The fight started, but Whitebeard stopped it because a ship carrying orphaned children went by."

"Really?!" Moda blurted in shock.

"Yeah. Pops always talks about how important family is. He's got a soft spot for kids."

"_Whitebeard_ did that?!"

"Like I said, don't believe everything you read."

"So who won the sea battle?"

"It ended up being a draw. The old man just laughed really hard and told Kaido they'd have to fight some other time."

"WHAT?!"

"Mhm."

"And Kaido agreed just like that?"

Ace snickered. "He was livid. But he also knew how strong the old man was and what would happen if both of them went all out. After all, the talk of Pops being the Strongest Man in the World is no joke."

Moda smiled. "A pirate, huh."

Ace laughed. "Is that a problem? Do I need to find another place to eat?"

Moda frowned. "That'd be no fun."

"And why's that?"

"Because things on the farm just got a lot more interesting. I get to make a pirate help with chores."

Ace shook his head. "You sure are a rude gir – l mean woman." He caught himself after Moda shot him a dirty look.

"And you're a hungry freeloader. Now help me clean this mess up."


	4. Copy-Cat Vallo (Portogas Is My Enemy!)

**Off the coast of Rodo-Rodo Island, 10 miles from TerraTerra Town…**

A newspaper's pages rustled in the wind of yet another overcast morning on the Grand Line, an engraged glower on the reader's face. If the freckled face on the wanted poster wasn't enough to boil his blood, the increased amount of Beri's underneath the photo brought him close to an aneurism. He angrily took a gulp of rum, the alcohol doing little to bring down his ire.

"Captain, last month's hit on the Navy warship brings your bounty up to 450 Million Beris!" A burly pirate exclaimed. The pair of frenzied eyes peering up from the newspaper quickly made him regret his outburst.

"That's not fucking good enough!" The burly pirate ducked, narrowly avoiding the rum-filled goblet clanging against the galley walls. "That Goddamned Fire Fist Ace. I'm still 100 million short of him!"

The burly pirate slowly lifted his lowered head, his other crewmates trembling with fear. "But Captain Vallo, this'll all change when we bring the best milk on the Grand Line to Big Mom's next tea party." The burly pirate spoke quickly, his voice trembling from fear. "Once we've secured an alliance with the Great Sea Empress that East Blue brat will no longer be a match for us." He hoped his words brownnosed words would be enough to curb his captain's anger.

"You're fucking right about that." Vallo grunted, annoyed at hearing firstmate state the obvious. "Get me some more rum, Smigz."

"Aye Aye! Right away, captain!" Smigz, hobbled away fearfully, moving surprisingly fast for his burly frame.

He leaned back into his captain's chair, his hand clutching the scar on his right cheek. "Fire Fist? Hmph!" He spat in disgust. A few pirates looked at their captain with sympathy. Vallo looked up. "And just what the fuck are you all staring at? Get back to work, or I'll feed you to the SeaKings!"

"Yes sir!"

"Aye Captain Vallo!"

"Sorry, Captain."

At 8 feet tall, 340 pounds with the ripped frame of a Shandorian warrior on steroids, Vallo D. Erzas, captain of the Copy Cat Pirates was quickly gaining notoriety on the Grand Line for his brutality and utter disregard for human life.

Friend or foe. Enemy or crewmate. It made no difference, Vallo saw every person as a tool for his ambition, a rung to be climbed over on the ladder to his goal. The World Government had taken notice, approaching him with an offer of Warlord status. However, after hearing how Fire Fist Ace had turned them down, Vallo, not wanting to be outdone by that East Blue bastard, cut the hands off the emissary sent to bring him the request and burned the letter from the World Government. And if that wasn't enough to raise his bounty, his raids on Navy ships certainly catapulted the beris under his name.

Vallo spat out the tobacco he'd been chewing. "Where's my rum, Smigz?"

"Right here, sir." Vallo gave his firstmate a murderous glance and snatched the goblet from his hands.

"Get out of my sight and tell the men to stay the fuck away from me. I feel like I might kill one of them today."

"Aye." Smigz lowered his eyes as he hobbled away, taking a sudden interest in the intricacies of the _Chamille Leona_'s wood deck.

Vallo watched his annoying firstmate walk away. How could Mother Sea have cursed him with such idiots for crewmembers? _Vermin, the whole lot of them._ He thought. He took a swig of rum, his anger flaring up yet again as he felt a tap on his shoulders. Who would be stupid enough to disturb him, now of all times? He relaxed after hearing a soft pur. He picked up the Bengal cat from his shoulder and placed him on his lap. "Oh, Simon, it's just you." The cat purred, happy to get a scratch behind the ears. "Simon, you're the only one I can count on. My crewmembers are a bunch of idiots and my firstmate is a fat buffoon." Simon mewed innocently.

Smigz shook his head, watching his captain from the other side of the deck. _What happened to you? What turned you against your crew? _

Vallo's mouth curled into a perverse smile. Portogas, you cocky son of a bitch. He took gulp from his goblet and leaned back into his seat. You keep on hiding behind Whitebeard. You keep raising your bounty. A fattened prey only means a bigger kill for the lion hunting it."

Vallo laughed, the sound of his drunken guffaws echoed throughout the galley, filling the _Chamille Leona'_s crew with terror. Their captain was not to be disturbed.


End file.
